About Suffering

FOR A NEW APPROACH TO SUFFERING, PHYSICAL AND MENTAL, HUMAN AND ANIMAL.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Another support in favor of something like algonomy

Here are the first and last paragraphs of a post in Evan Palmer's blog The Way It Can Be:

"If we want a guiding principle, it seems that directing ourselves to the reduction and elimination of suffering will lead us eventually to a kind of paradise. It's similar to having compassion for all creatures. It's similar to "love your neighbour as yourself" or "do unto others..". However, it has an advantage in that it has more of an orientation to action. It pushes us to look at suffering and try to see its causes and remedies and then asks us to act.

(...)

The reduction and elimination of suffering leads us to good stewardship of nature, to vegetarianism, to peace, to right living and livelihood. It does bring us face-to-face with spiritual laws and if we accept them or want to follow them. It does force us into the unpleasant calculus of the greatest good for the greatest number and accepting some suffering against greater suffering, or accepting some suffering against violation of a spiritual law and what we feel would be the certainty of greater future suffering. It makes us address deluded suffering brought on by things like consumerism or greed but with compassion and an appropriate gentleness."

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Global cooperation is needed for ending the world's suffering

This title is taken from an opinion piece by Scott Beale in The News Journal (Delaware, USA). The last paragraph of his article goes like this:

"It is important to recognize the contributions that the U.S. has made to address global challenges like human trafficking; but it is also time to reflect on what more can be done to promote international cooperation. Personally, I refuse to be a passive participant in the global politics abdicating the power we all have to make a difference. I am embracing my role as a global citizen and the shared responsibility we have to address the suffering that persists in the world."

Scott makes judicious remarks about the complexity of problems and solutions, based on his experience in India, Bosnia, and Columbia. He created recently an organisation called Atlas Corps. He says: "Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford, one of the founders of the Peace Corps, has joined our Senior Advisory Board and in a few months we will launch a new approach towards international cooperation." All this is very good.

Yes, indeed, global cooperation is needed for managing successfully the world's suffering, but then I submit respectfully that an overarching frame of work is needed, and by definition, or by the argument of requisite globality if you prefer, this framework can only be algonomy.

Introduction

It is proposed to develop a new domain of work concerned with the whole set of things that relate to suffering.
It is suggested to name algonomy this new domain of work.
Posts here focus on various documents and events where people speak of suffering as a primary concern. The intended goal is to develop algonomy by linking up with people who are the most likely to benefit from or to contribute to the new domain.